A packet of cigarettes normally comprises an inner package defined by a group of cigarettes wrapped in a sheet of inner packing material (normally foil with no glue); and an outer package enclosing the inner package, and which is stabilized using glue, and may be defined by a sheet of outer packing material folded into a cup shape about the inner package (soft packet of cigarettes), or by a rigid, hinged-lid box formed by folding a rigid blank about the inner package (rigid packet of cigarettes).
On almost all currently marketed packing machines, folding a sheet of packing material about a group of cigarettes commences with folding the sheet of packing material into a U about the group of cigarettes. This is normally done by feeding the group of cigarettes along a straight path, and feeding the sheet of packing material perpendicularly across the path, ahead of the group of cigarettes, so the group of cigarettes, as it moves forward, intercepts and gradually folds the sheet of packing material into a U.
It has been observed that folding the sheet of packing material into a U about the group of cigarettes as described above may damage the ends of the cigarettes, thus resulting in localized deformation (of both the filter ends and the plain ends where the tobacco is exposed), and/or in tobacco spill (i.e. tobacco fallout, obviously only from the plain ends where the tobacco is exposed). This applies in particular to the corner cigarettes in the group, though damage is evident to some extent in all the outermost cigarettes, i.e. located along the fold lines of the sheet of packing material. Moreover, the above method of folding the sheet of packing material into a U about the group of cigarettes fails to provide for forming square edges, on account of the stiffness of the sheet of packing material deforming the cigarettes and so resulting in the formation of rounded edges. The fact that the package is rounded as opposed to square is particularly undesirable, by producing an overall look of the package that is not very popular with consumers, who tend to opt for packages with decidedly sharp edges.